In September 2023 Wayfarer announced the Wayfarer Abuse Enforcement Ladder. Since that time they have enforced suspensions across both Wayfarer and Pokémon GO simultaneously, with the aim of protecting the integrity of the shared game map.
With the recent changes that shifted Wayspot submissions exclusively to Wayfarer Web Submission, and removed them from Pokémon GO, they have now announced that they will be able to separate Wayfarer abuse enforcements from Pokémon GO. This change will be introduced later this week.
Changes to Warnings and Suspensions
After this change, Wayfarer warnings and suspensions will only apply to your Wayfarer account and will remain separate from your Pokémon GO account, except in cases of severe violations.
If your Pokémon GO account was suspended solely due to Wayfarer abuse, your Pokémon GO account will automatically reinstated, except in cases where your account was suspended for severe violations. These accounts will remain suspended in both Wayfarer and Pokémon GO.
What is a Severe Violation?
Severe violations include content or behaviour that breaks their rules or violates the Wayfarer Player Guidelines. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Harassment
- Threats
- Doxxing
- Hate Speech
- Impersonating players, moderators, or Scopely Explore employees
For more details on these violations, please visit the Scopely Explore Safety Center.
Future Suspensions
Violations of the Scopely Terms of Service, Wayfarer Guidelines, or any type of Wayfarer abuse will still lead to Wayfarer warnings and suspensions, but these will no longer automatically impact your Pokémon GO access, except in cases of severe violations.
Please note that if you are suspended in Wayfarer, this will still restrict Wayfarer-related features within Pokémon GO and you will not be able to submit Title, Description, Photo, or Location edits in Pokémon GO while these submission types live within Pokémon GO.
Thoughts
There was a lot of uproar when the announcement was made that Wayfarer and Pokémon GO bans and suspensions would be linked, and over the last three years many banned trainers have claimed to be banned because of Wayfarer submissions. Many of these bans have later turned out to be because of other activities in Pokémon GO, such as spoofing, and have had nothing to be with submitting Pokéstops. So what does this mean going forward?
Spoofers and other trainers breaking the terms of service will no longer be able to blame Wayfarer for their bans. This is a good thing in our opinion, as it created a lot of fearmongering in the community, and led to many trainers no longer feeling like they could safely submit Wayspots.
Hopefully this will also lead to more trainers now submitting Wayspots once again, as they will not be concerned that accidentally breaching the Wayfarer submission rules will lead to them being banned in Pokémon GO. The shared map can always be improved and points of interest are always being created in the real world, and therefore should be in-game too.
The general reception to this change on social media is largely positive, with many players commenting that they will now resume submitting points of interest via Wayfarer, as they aren’t concerned for their Pokémons GO accounts safety anymore.
How Can I Ensure I’m Staying Within the Guidelines?
- The Official Wayfarer Forums: https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/
- This is a forum that is run and maintained by the Niantic Wayfarer team and has sections for Criteria Clarifications where Wayfinders can go ask questions about criteria and get answers from Wayfarer community members, and Ambassadors. It also has a section for Nomination improvement, where Wayfinders can get help with any perspective nominations.
- The Wayfarer Discussion Discord: https://discord.gg/niawayfarer
- This is an unofficial Discord server that is home to many experienced Wayfinders, and several of the Ambassadors. They have channels for Reviewing Advice where you can get advice on something that’s come up in your reviews, Submitting advice where you can get advice on your potential Wayspot submissions, and many other channels.
- Follow the Wayspotters on Twitter, and listen to their Podcast. Glawhantojar and Jamal host a weekly podcast where we discuss everything about Wayfarer, including all the news, advice, examples of good and bad Wayspots, and more! They are also on YouTube if you prefer video.
